There is tremendous potential for developing Russia-Azerbaijan relations in the fields of education and science, and its implementation requires forums like the 10th Russia-Azerbaijan Interregional Forum, held on November 22-23 in Moscow, director of the Center of Interdisciplinary Humanitarian Research of the Southern Federal University Veronika Tsybenko said, speaking with the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza.
"In order to intensify our cooperation with Azerbaijan, it is necessary to meet more often, use any platforms for this purpose, talk, hear each other and treat each other with great respect. This is the main condition for any dialogue - and the Russia-Azerbaijan Interregional Forum provides us such conditions," she said.
"Our relations with Azerbaijan (I speak only for the southern region as a representative of Southern Federal University) are developing. We are clearly aware that we need to strengthen cooperation. At the moment, only 29 Azerbaijani citizens are receiving education in SFU, a leading university in southern Russia, which is a very small number," the director of the Center of Interdisciplinary Humanitarian Research of the Southern Federal University drew attention.
"Recognizing how important this cooperation with Azerbaijan is for us, we are making certain efforts in this direction. In particular, we conduct a series of expert panel sessions and invite experts from Azerbaijan, discuss topical issues of cooperation with them, and not only between our countries, but also in Greater Eurasia as a whole," Veronika Tsybenko said.
"Interaction at the regional level, macro-regional cooperation, mega-regional relations - we are interested in all of this. We consider these processes realistically, trying to see everything that interferes with our cooperation, and everything that helps it, as well as, being scientists and experts, we look for what can be done," she added.
"Our university also conducts research on Turkish Studies and Islamic studies - something that is extremely interesting for Azerbaijan. We, in turn, are very interested in Azerbaijani studies in these areas, especially since the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences has separate institutions on the Caucasus: the Institute of the Caucasian Studies, the Institute of Oriental Studies. We plan to promote interaction with them in the future," the director of the Center of Interdisciplinary Humanitarian Research of the Southern Federal University stressed.
Oriental themes are studied by the Center, led by Veronika Tsybenko. "Our Center is a scientific structural unit of the Southern Federal University. We have Islamic experts, Orientalists, Turkologists, specialists in Caucasian studies and political scientists. Our priority is Turkic studies, primarily Turkey, the Caucasian and Turkic diasporas in Turkey, the South Caucasus and the North Caucasus Federal District. We pay great attention to the religious component and ethnic studies research," she said.
